The Perfect One You’ve Been Looking For (PERFECT/ED SHEERAN)

LAST ANNOUNCEMENT: COVER YTH CAMP TEXT

Mark 10:17–22 “As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” Mark 10:26–27 “The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.””

HOT MOMENT (Honest, Open, Transparent): How many of you when listening to a romantic song start daydreaming?

Maybe you start daydreaming about somebody you are already with

Maybe you start daydreaming about that certain someone you have your eyes on

OR maybe you start daydreaming of some celebrity/athlete that fits your idea of perfection for somebody you want to end up with

Whatever it may be, I can probably guess that most of us in here have a longing to find the perfect person that we will spend the rest of our days with

When I think of Ed Sheeran’s song Perfect, I think it perfectly sums up what all of us dream of, in some way or form, when it comes to relationships. Here are a couple lyrics that resonate with me:

“I found a love, for me Darling, just dive right in and follow my lead”

“When you said you looked a mess I whispered underneath my breath But you heard it Darling, you look perfect tonight”

“We are still kids, but we're so in love Fighting against all odds I know we'll be alright this time Darling, just hold my hand Be my girl, I'll be your man I see my future in your eyes”

The one thing we all in this room have in common is a desire to be loved unconditionally and to be wanted.

We want this in dating relationships, parental relationships, and friendships.

However, we know (or we should be aware) that not every person that enters into our life has this interest and care towards and about us. This can set us up for hurt and pain because we can tend to hand over ourselves to people and to things that were never meant to have that space in our hearts.

We also, since the Garden of Eden, have developed this natural leaning toward trying to EARN and PROVE ourselves to God and others to make sure they know we are WORTHY of that attention, affection, love and reward.

The rich young ruler found himself in this place.

Mark 10:17 “As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?””

See, the rich young ruler asked the right person the wrong question

He asked the very one who could GIVE him eternal life (with unconditional love, fulfill that desire to be wanted, and showcase true love and devotion to Him) the wrong question about what HE could do to help himself get eternal life

You can know that God loves you and still have a wrong understanding of what that love is all about.

This man called Jesus “Good Teacher”. Good implied sinless, perfection, which is what Jesus was. The man had an understanding that Jesus was different than the other teachers of that day, but he had a poor understanding of the Word and what the law was really saying. The Law was explaining God’s perfection and that we couldn’t achieve that without a perfect Savior. He was living as if the responsibility to be perfect was on him, which was wrong.

Jesus lists commands that we can find in the OT books and the young man explains he was achieved all those things and still felt empty. According to how he was interpreting the Law, he had followed the commandments because he hadn’t gone against those laws in action. However, the Law isn’t only meant to judge our actions but to also judge our hearts. There is no way the man had not experienced sinful thoughts or desires in his heart or mind. This is because…

Romans 3:23 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

Scripture also calls our hearts “wicked” in Jeremiah 17:9

And God judges the heart of men according to 1 Samuel 16:7

Jesus points to the source of the young man’s troubles by saying…

Mark 10:21 “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.””

Jesus calls out to his heart. Not his actions, but the innermost part of his being. Where his heart truly was. This man’s heart was turned towards trust in his possessions

Jesus tells him that in order to achieve the satisfaction he had been longing for the man needed to sell ALL his possessions, give his earnings away, and find the true treasure by coming to follow Him.

Jesus challenged his heart, not his actions or doings. He challenged what he put his trust in.

This man found his trust and utmost value to be in money.

For some of us, our trust and utmost value can tend to be placed on relationships. We put our trust in those instead of the Creator of our very souls, the one our hearts were designed to love most.

Some of you after a relationship ends feel like this…

You feel empty

You feel like you lost yourself when they left

You feel no joy for life

You are confused about your purpose going forward

You feel like you need to get that person back or life will never be good again

You feel this deep sense of hurt you can’t explain to others

You have no emotional or mental clarity

Two things could be at the root of you feeling this way:

You crossed a boundary outside of God’s guidelines for relationships (we’ll speak more on this later)

You put all your treasure into this one person

Matthew 6:19–21 ““Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

This verse means that any treasure (wealth and ultimately, trust) is put outside of Heaven (which is in Christ) it is subject to being destroyed and taken away.

God (heaven) lasts forever, Earth does not.

TPT puts verse 21 as “For your heart will always pursue what you esteem (value) as your treasure.”

The reason you find yourself lost after every break-up is because you keep giving someone else the place of value and the things of value that only God can be and define.

Ladies…

You don’t have to go flaunting yourself at a guy to prove your worth

You don’t have to compromise in the area of sex to be wanted

Guys…

You don’t have to compromise sex to get and keep a girl’s attention

You don’t have to prove yourself to be something your not to get someone to see you as worthy

If you don’t see yourself rightly through God’s eyes and His Word, you will always try to prove yourself to Him and put your treasure in other things.

The rich young ruler’s thing was money, but yours could be relationships (dating or friends or family)

Mark 10:22 “At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

Jesus’ answer didn’t satisfy Him because he was still blinded by view of the Law and his view of his possessions.

V21 says that Jesus felt “genuine love” for this man. Jesus truly wanted him to see the truth, but he refused to accept the truth

Seeing the desperation and then final disappointment of this young man, the disciples themselves even questioned if anyone can be saved if even Jesus said the rich would struggle with their possessions and a relationship with God. Jesus’ answer is our very answer today.

Mark 10:27 “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.””

We cannot earn our way to salvation. We cannot do enough good things to get us to heaven. Only a relationship with Jesus, where we trust in His ability to not sin and defeat sin through His life, death, and resurrection is the ONLY way. This relationship takes trusting with ALL of us. Not just parts of us, but all of US. Not in anything we do, only Him.

Salvation is not the only thing possible through Jesus. Living a life that treasures Him above all other things and people is also possible. It is our natural reflex and habit to trust in things and people we see and not in a God who we cannot see F2F. It is only by putting faith (confident expectation) in Jesus that you can put your treasure in Him.

That doesn’t mean you’ll never experience hurt and pain in relationships never again. It just means…

You won’t lose yourself because they didn’t create and give you an identity in the first place.

You won’t feel purposeless because they didn’t hold it, God does.

You won’t feel this deep sense of unexplainable hurt because they didn’t have your heart in an unhealthy way

The perfection that you long for when you listen to those romance songs isn’t in a person and it isn’t anything you can participate in, play, or do. That perfect person is only Jesus. He is the only one who will love you unconditionally the way you desire, truly want you for the right reasons, and give you everything you long for. Any other person we want to include in our lives has to be filtered through His heart for us, and if that person is pursuing His heart. Then and only then should they be allowed access to our lives, but only with care that they do not become our utmost treasure.